Not thinning. out.....

I'm 5 days late and not effacing or dilating.... I'm being admitted to the hospital on Sunday to try to get the process going. The Dr. says he will insert a gel (Cervagel or something like that, not exactly sure of the name) to try to get me to thin out so they can induce labor. But he tells me that this only works 1/2 the time. Has anyone had any experience with this?? Don't know what I'm in for.

i saw your post about this earlier and wanted to respond but was hoping that you would ave gone into labor naturally. i also don't want to freak you out with my story, but perhaps it will help you. i was totally closed and there were no signs of anything happening as far as impending labor. the day after my DD they did all that gel and pitocin stuff to induce me. it didn't work. so they sent me home. a week later my water broke and when i arrived at the hospital they said it didn't break because it didn't turn this Ph strip test thingy the right color. i laid there for 11 hours BEFORE the doctor could bother to come see me and do a 2 min. test to see if it was infact my ambiotic fluid. it was, of course, and because i had not gone into active labor on my own, my water had been broken for too long so i got an infection in my uterus. it messed everything up.... i am not going to go into all of that but let's just say that it was not the kind of labor and delivery that you might see on 'A Baby's Story' my son and i barley came out if the ordeal alive. THE POINT OF THIS STORY...... if the doctors want to induce you.... fine. but DO NOT go home without your baby. if the first attemp does not work, try again or do a c-section. for some reason my body was not able to go into active labor and still after 31 hours of labor the doctor was too stupid to see that untilll it was too late. i would not wish my story on anyone. if you don't like what is going on with your treatment, do something about it. i say let the doc's be agressive and get your baby to you safley.

Hi 1st timer, welcome to my world Im 39 weeks and 4 days and was scheduled for induction August 5th, however, the doctor told me my cervix was too hard and he would need to do the Cervidal to soften it before he could do the induction. I was admitted last Wed. at 5pm where the Cervidal was to stay in place for 12 hours. You will be monitored continously during this time. My doctor said it could start contractions which could kick your own body into gear. Around 10pm I started having contractions 2 min. apart and they really were quite uncomfortable. I was offered pain medication which I didn't want because I dont want it in the baby, but I did ask for the epidural, which the nurse said they would only give me if the Cervidal worked and I was going to be staying for the induction. Well, the Cervidal didn't work too well for me. By 5am, my 12 hours were up, my cervix had softened by 5 %. My doctor did tell me though that it wasn't a complete unsuccess and that the baby had dropped with the contractions and that I was 2 cm dialated. He told me to go home and come back the following morning (which is this morning). Aparently you have to be 2 cm and 80% effaced to begin induction. Im 2 cm now and 60% effaced, so hes going to start the Pitocin at 6am, break my water, and my body should kick into gear. I did tell him, there was no way I would go through that pain again, and a lot of its my fault because I would'nt take the pain meds, and it wasn't unbearable pain, just nagging heavy crampy pain, so he told me when I get there this morning, they'll start me on the Epidural first thing, then the Petocin once the Epidural is working, then he'll break the water.

I also spoke with a lady at my church, who was admitted for Cervidal. She said she was admitted at 8 pm for the 12 hours and within 4 hours her contractions started. She had her baby at 9 am the following morning!!!! We all react so differently, I wish you the best of luck.

I went through the gell with my first child. My cervix didn't soften, think or anything. I went into the hospital at 11 days over due to have the gel. They put it in every three hours for a total of 3 times. I had horrible back cramps, i didn't get any sleep, demerol didn't help to ease the cramps. The good news is that it did do it's job by morning my cervix was soft and ready for induction. I ended up having a c section because by the time i was dialated (12-14 hours) he had moved into a position that wouldn't allow for natural delivery.

They used a tablet to thin my cervix, instead of a gel. It worked well. I was 1 cm and 50% for 2 months before the birth. The tablet is put on like every hour prior to induction. They didn't start my induction until I was already 12 days past my due date though! My son was born 14 days after his DD. From the time they started the tablets (9pm on Thurs night) to delivery (1:56am Sat morning!) they had a continuous drip of pitocin and fluids going in my IV and I had to stay in bed hooked up to external monitors to check the contractions the WHOLE TIME. Induction takes forever to get started, but once you get to a certain point, like 6 cm or so, it gets really fast and really intense! Try not to worry too much. The baby WILL come out! Just make sure once you're there, you say you aren't leaving without you baby! Good luck!

1st Timer, dont worry about the cervix getting soft. I posted earlier saying I had gone through the night with the Cervidal and it didn't soften my cervix, well I went in for induction anyway (with the hard cervix) last Friday the 6th, they started induction with Pitocin, broke my water and my baby was born at 12 noon. 4 hours later

I had the gel when I was 14 days overdue with my first child.
After visiting my OB he told me that the cervix was not thinning and that I was only about 1 cm dialated and that the hospital would contact me the next day. The next morning at around 7 am I got a phone call from the hospital asking how soon I could be there. I was told that they would apply the gel every four hours and that I could go home in between "gelings". What they did not tell me was that I would have to lay in the hospital bed each time with my knees raised for 2 hours!

The first gelling took place at around noon (after all that rush in getting there!) and I was allowed to leave at around 3 pm. With only an hour before the next gelling I went for a bite to eat and coffee at a relative's. I was called back at 4 pm for the next application and was shocked when they said that they were sending me home. They explained that they usually had to apply it 4 times before it worked and since I was not having good contractions and I was not dialating it was okay to go home. I could have stayed but they warned me that I would be in the labour and delivery and would probably not get much sleep. I figured that I needed all of the rest I could get and went home with a warning to come in if my water broke during the night.

A couple hours and a few bumpy roads later I arrived home, had a glass of juice, took 2 tylenol, had a bath and went to bed, cramping quite heavily. Just as I was drifting off to sleep my water broke (around 12am). I made a couple phone calls and was off to the hospital (an hour away). When I got there the intern checked me and to my disappointment he said I was only 1.5 cm and he was sending me home. I'm not sure why I wasn't sent home right then but he checked me again about an hour later and I was 6 cm. By 4 am I was ready to push.

The labour was not very painful up until the crappy part of my birth story! Don't go getting worried now, this had nothing to do with the cervix gelling LOL. My son decided that he did not want to come out so he turned his head and became wedged in there. My lazy doctor told the nurse (over the phone from his house) that I should have a epidural (this was before I started pushing). After three hours of pushing the doctor decided to make a appearance proclaiming that he was scheduled for a c-section and I was interupting it. He shouted at my mother to turn off the video camera as he clamped on the forceps, placed his one foot up on the end of the bed for leverage as he pulled, and hollered that I needed to push because he was doing all of the work (where the hell was he for the past 3 hours!? Sleeping. I thought good for you doc, you should be doing all of the work!).

My second child came all on her own only arriving about 2 days past her due date. Going into labour on my own was alot easier and it was more comfortable because I was at home. She was so cooperative in coming that although I was 9 cm when I got to the hospital she (the baby) had not broken my water. It's a good thing too, because she arrived not more than 15 min after the doctor (not the same one!) did the honors.

I found the only difference in the labours to be the pushing time. The contractions were very mild for both and the labour relatively short up until I had to push with my son.

Note that I only had the cervical gel. I did not have any pitocin as the contractions came on their own.

I would suggest that if they give you the choice of going home or staying that you make your decision based on how close you live to the hospital. One woman actually delivered her child in the ambulance bay, in front of the security cameras after having this done and being sent home to a town over an hour away.